The writing in this game is average

[hiver]

I just stealthed into that room and stole the book, no probs with animancer, but also nothing special.

I used the mask and made a deal with guys in woedica temple but now that everything is finished they just stand there and i cant tell them what i did with two quests they gave me, whats up with that?

 

[Hamster]

By the way, after playing a bit more, I've finally realized why, despite liking the writing overall, something was bugging me about it. It's rather subtle, but it's the fact that magic doesn't feel like it belongs in this world, despite characters ostensibly being able to cast magic.

Power over the elements. Incredible. Not like Aloth right next to you also helds power over elements.

 

[Hobo Elf]

By the way, after playing a bit more, I've finally realized why, despite liking the writing overall, something was bugging me about it. It's rather subtle, but it's the fact that magic doesn't feel like it belongs in this world, despite characters ostensibly being able to cast magic.

Power over the elements. Incredible. Not like Aloth right next to you also helds power over elements.

It could be that the writer didn't make it come out the way it was intended. Perhaps it was meant that this person in question was able to command the elements without the use of his soul like everyone else does? Perhaps this would make it more special? Take Monster Hunter for example: you have two monsters that both have electrical attacks. One is classified as an Elder Dragon (it looks like a unicorn) and the other is not (a much larger and more impressive wolf-like creature). The Unicorn is classified as an Elder Dragon because it can summon lightning storms without any scientific explanation. It just does. Whereas the wolf-like monster has biological conductors that generate lightning. It could be a similar-ish situation? Either way it's poorly conveyed and this is just pure conjecture on my part. Could be that it's just shitty and inconsistent writing.

 

[Angthoron]

I just stealthed into that room and stole the book, no probs with animancer, but also nothing special.

I used the mask and made a deal with guys in woedica temple but now that everything is finished they just stand there and i cant tell them what i did with two quests they gave me, whats up with that?

Just unleash murderchaos upon them.

By the way, after playing a bit more, I've finally realized why, despite liking the writing overall, something was bugging me about it. It's rather subtle, but it's the fact that magic doesn't feel like it belongs in this world, despite characters ostensibly being able to cast magic.

Power over the elements. Incredible. Not like Aloth right next to you also helds power over elements.

Ah yeah, I was also being like "ok wat" at that part. Also, I have to say, I was like "okay wat horrible experiments wat am i missing" throughout the Endless Paths. All I saw was a pit filled with blood, a giant statue and um um um a magic door? What's so terrible about this? Irenicus' dungeon was terrible, this was just a bunch of ruins where mobs live. Come on.

And yeah, didn't really feel like magic is a proper part of the world, either. The only characters that make it look more like it is are the dead dorf woman, the dead Madam Webb woman (because employing a bunch of ciphers for menial work), and GM, surprise, a cipher too. So, basically 1 animancer and 2 ciphers. Mages don't do this at any point, neither do the priests nor etc.

 

[Kel]

The difference was that here you get to make an arbitrary choice of what your past self's motivation for commiting a certain action was whereas in Torment you found out what other incarnations, in essence other people, had done in your situation and how this might relate to you and your future. Also I couldn't care less about the ghost woman, about who she was and why should it even matter. By the time I encountered a dream sequence I had already forgotten what dialogue option I had chosen in the one before it.

Arbitrary to you. I was glad that I was finally given the possibility to RP exactly the kind of character I've always wanted to play in an RPG. I thought it was a genius way of making character building an on going thing that you yourself kept writing as the game went on, rather than something that was decided upon completely from the very beginning.

To me, the game does exactly what you say it doesn't, sets a role that was predetermined. I don't know if you've completed the game or not, so I won't spoil too much, but the whole past thing is completely railroaded. There's no difference in the outcome no matter what you choose, because what you choose are cosmetic options. Towards the end, even the cosmetic options get stupid, like the response to Iovara's question as to why you betrayed her. I was looking at the response options and couldn't shake the feeling that every single one of them was stupid and taking away any chance of having the character feel as "my" character. Sure, you can't give all the options in the world to please everyone, but with options like "I don't know, I just did it" and "[Asshole] There can be no assurances", I just don't know.

Bottomline is, your character is railroaded to be a traitor, an idiot and a sheep. There's no influence on your part on this. Fuck, you aren't even given a decent enough non-shit motive that derives from your previous choices (play your cards right and get a unique result of having been duped into betraying her instead of actively being a lying piece of shit).

So yeah. The whole "past life" plot is useless, and prone to falling apart. It has some good moments, but overall, it's something that shouldn't have been. And it even takes away from the ending:

Spoiler

When you're walking towards the final confrontations, you revisit a few frozen scenes from your past life's memories. Scenes you've seen already, and scenes that don't really do much. They're not scenes or people from the choices you've made, like in the Witcher 1 finale, nor the final talk with your companions a-la Torment. They're just... eh. Reminders of the plot. Thanks game, I remember.

well put

tldr: fenstermaker ruined the pacing AND shoehorned a linear protagonist upon all custom chars

 

[Angthoron]

The difference was that here you get to make an arbitrary choice of what your past self's motivation for commiting a certain action was whereas in Torment you found out what other incarnations, in essence other people, had done in your situation and how this might relate to you and your future. Also I couldn't care less about the ghost woman, about who she was and why should it even matter. By the time I encountered a dream sequence I had already forgotten what dialogue option I had chosen in the one before it.

Arbitrary to you. I was glad that I was finally given the possibility to RP exactly the kind of character I've always wanted to play in an RPG. I thought it was a genius way of making character building an on going thing that you yourself kept writing as the game went on, rather than something that was decided upon completely from the very beginning.

To me, the game does exactly what you say it doesn't, sets a role that was predetermined. I don't know if you've completed the game or not, so I won't spoil too much, but the whole past thing is completely railroaded. There's no difference in the outcome no matter what you choose, because what you choose are cosmetic options. Towards the end, even the cosmetic options get stupid, like the response to Iovara's question as to why you betrayed her. I was looking at the response options and couldn't shake the feeling that every single one of them was stupid and taking away any chance of having the character feel as "my" character. Sure, you can't give all the options in the world to please everyone, but with options like "I don't know, I just did it" and "[Asshole] There can be no assurances", I just don't know.

Bottomline is, your character is railroaded to be a traitor, an idiot and a sheep. There's no influence on your part on this. Fuck, you aren't even given a decent enough non-shit motive that derives from your previous choices (play your cards right and get a unique result of having been duped into betraying her instead of actively being a lying piece of shit).

So yeah. The whole "past life" plot is useless, and prone to falling apart. It has some good moments, but overall, it's something that shouldn't have been. And it even takes away from the ending:

Spoiler

When you're walking towards the final confrontations, you revisit a few frozen scenes from your past life's memories. Scenes you've seen already, and scenes that don't really do much. They're not scenes or people from the choices you've made, like in the Witcher 1 finale, nor the final talk with your companions a-la Torment. They're just... eh. Reminders of the plot. Thanks game, I remember.

well put

tldr: fenstermaker ruined the pacing AND shoehorned a linear protagonist upon all custom chars

Thing is, I don't feel like putting it all on Fenstermaker's (or whatever the name) head alone. Game writing is a collaborative and iterative process. You can see the new iterations, in fact - whenever you see a joint in the writing, whenever you see something that doesn't actually make sense in its surrounding context, you can be sure it was iterated on and probably was completely different originally. I'm willing to bet that it was better, more coherent, railroaded maybe, but coherent.

Nah, what I see here is a typical example of a group effort revisit upon a single author's work. You can see MCA's texts being unaffected, because he's MCA and nobody's going to trample his things and tell him to redo them, but the rest... Yeah. Collaborative iteration/editing.

Hell, even if it isn't and I'm wrong - the team still should've had a say. They must've seen the drafts, the scripts, they must've heard the actors, edited the recordings. To build the Act 2 end scene, it took more than one guy - so why didn't the rest tell him it was bad? Probably because they all thought it was a good idea.

 

[Kel]

The difference was that here you get to make an arbitrary choice of what your past self's motivation for commiting a certain action was whereas in Torment you found out what other incarnations, in essence other people, had done in your situation and how this might relate to you and your future. Also I couldn't care less about the ghost woman, about who she was and why should it even matter. By the time I encountered a dream sequence I had already forgotten what dialogue option I had chosen in the one before it.

Arbitrary to you. I was glad that I was finally given the possibility to RP exactly the kind of character I've always wanted to play in an RPG. I thought it was a genius way of making character building an on going thing that you yourself kept writing as the game went on, rather than something that was decided upon completely from the very beginning.

To me, the game does exactly what you say it doesn't, sets a role that was predetermined. I don't know if you've completed the game or not, so I won't spoil too much, but the whole past thing is completely railroaded. There's no difference in the outcome no matter what you choose, because what you choose are cosmetic options. Towards the end, even the cosmetic options get stupid, like the response to Iovara's question as to why you betrayed her. I was looking at the response options and couldn't shake the feeling that every single one of them was stupid and taking away any chance of having the character feel as "my" character. Sure, you can't give all the options in the world to please everyone, but with options like "I don't know, I just did it" and "[Asshole] There can be no assurances", I just don't know.

Bottomline is, your character is railroaded to be a traitor, an idiot and a sheep. There's no influence on your part on this. Fuck, you aren't even given a decent enough non-shit motive that derives from your previous choices (play your cards right and get a unique result of having been duped into betraying her instead of actively being a lying piece of shit).

So yeah. The whole "past life" plot is useless, and prone to falling apart. It has some good moments, but overall, it's something that shouldn't have been. And it even takes away from the ending:

Spoiler

When you're walking towards the final confrontations, you revisit a few frozen scenes from your past life's memories. Scenes you've seen already, and scenes that don't really do much. They're not scenes or people from the choices you've made, like in the Witcher 1 finale, nor the final talk with your companions a-la Torment. They're just... eh. Reminders of the plot. Thanks game, I remember.

well put

tldr: fenstermaker ruined the pacing AND shoehorned a linear protagonist upon all custom chars

Thing is, I don't feel like putting it all on Fenstermaker's (or whatever the name) head alone. Game writing is a collaborative and iterative process. You can see the new iterations, in fact - whenever you see a joint in the writing, whenever you see something that doesn't actually make sense in its surrounding context, you can be sure it was iterated on and probably was completely different originally. I'm willing to bet that it was better, more coherent, railroaded maybe, but coherent.

Nah, what I see here is a typical example of a group effort revisit upon a single author's work. You can see MCA's texts being unaffected, because he's MCA and nobody's going to trample his things and tell him to redo them, but the rest... Yeah. Collaborative iteration/editing.

Hell, even if it isn't and I'm wrong - the team still should've had a say. They must've seen the drafts, the scripts, they must've heard the actors, edited the recordings. To build the Act 2 end scene, it took more than one guy - so why didn't the rest tell him it was bad? Probably because they all thought it was a good idea.

The way I've read it on their updates, Cain was programming and system, Avellone was part-time feedback, Sawyer was world design and system While they delegated narrative and story elements to Fenstermaker and he just didnt have the chops to make it well rounded enough to be both unique and freeform.

Fallout, BG2, Arcanum etc. all had significant stories with the player reserving the right to upset and or NOT comply with any of the assumptions of said story.

 

[hiver]

I just stealthed into that room and stole the book, no probs with animancer, but also nothing special.

I used the mask and made a deal with guys in woedica temple but now that everything is finished they just stand there and i cant tell them what i did with two quests they gave me, whats up with that?

Just unleash murderchaos upon them.

yeah, got anything else that isnt stupid?

its not like i havent been doing that for most of the game, either.

By the way, after playing a bit more, I've finally realized why, despite liking the writing overall, something was bugging me about it. It's rather subtle, but it's the fact that magic doesn't feel like it belongs in this world, despite characters ostensibly being able to cast magic.

Power over the elements. Incredible. Not like Aloth right next to you also helds power over elements.

Ah yeah, I was also being like "ok wat" at that part. Also, I have to say, I was like "okay wat horrible experiments wat am i missing" throughout the Endless Paths. All I saw was a pit filled with blood, a giant statue and um um um a magic door? What's so terrible about this? Irenicus' dungeon was terrible, this was just a bunch of ruins where mobs live. Come on.

Not the first or the last setting where the magic isnt really connected to anything, just maybe with less superficial excusing lore.

And Irenicus dungeon was like that because it showed stuff to the player directly, and had stuff happening to the player, instead of just telling him stuff. mkay?
you see? you complain because not enough was shown to you.


/
on the other side, i thought that the Holowborn plot was a nice way to mask and excuse that there are no kids in the game.
Nicely done there, tying those two up like that.

 

[Ninjerk]

The difference was that here you get to make an arbitrary choice of what your past self's motivation for commiting a certain action was whereas in Torment you found out what other incarnations, in essence other people, had done in your situation and how this might relate to you and your future. Also I couldn't care less about the ghost woman, about who she was and why should it even matter. By the time I encountered a dream sequence I had already forgotten what dialogue option I had chosen in the one before it.

Arbitrary to you. I was glad that I was finally given the possibility to RP exactly the kind of character I've always wanted to play in an RPG. I thought it was a genius way of making character building an on going thing that you yourself kept writing as the game went on, rather than something that was decided upon completely from the very beginning.

To me, the game does exactly what you say it doesn't, sets a role that was predetermined. I don't know if you've completed the game or not, so I won't spoil too much, but the whole past thing is completely railroaded. There's no difference in the outcome no matter what you choose, because what you choose are cosmetic options. Towards the end, even the cosmetic options get stupid, like the response to Iovara's question as to why you betrayed her. I was looking at the response options and couldn't shake the feeling that every single one of them was stupid and taking away any chance of having the character feel as "my" character. Sure, you can't give all the options in the world to please everyone, but with options like "I don't know, I just did it" and "[Asshole] There can be no assurances", I just don't know.

Bottomline is, your character is railroaded to be a traitor, an idiot and a sheep. There's no influence on your part on this. Fuck, you aren't even given a decent enough non-shit motive that derives from your previous choices (play your cards right and get a unique result of having been duped into betraying her instead of actively being a lying piece of shit).

So yeah. The whole "past life" plot is useless, and prone to falling apart. It has some good moments, but overall, it's something that shouldn't have been. And it even takes away from the ending:

Spoiler

When you're walking towards the final confrontations, you revisit a few frozen scenes from your past life's memories. Scenes you've seen already, and scenes that don't really do much. They're not scenes or people from the choices you've made, like in the Witcher 1 finale, nor the final talk with your companions a-la Torment. They're just... eh. Reminders of the plot. Thanks game, I remember.

well put

tldr: fenstermaker ruined the pacing AND shoehorned a linear protagonist upon all custom chars

Thing is, I don't feel like putting it all on Fenstermaker's (or whatever the name) head alone. Game writing is a collaborative and iterative process. You can see the new iterations, in fact - whenever you see a joint in the writing, whenever you see something that doesn't actually make sense in its surrounding context, you can be sure it was iterated on and probably was completely different originally. I'm willing to bet that it was better, more coherent, railroaded maybe, but coherent.

Nah, what I see here is a typical example of a group effort revisit upon a single author's work. You can see MCA's texts being unaffected, because he's MCA and nobody's going to trample his things and tell him to redo them, but the rest... Yeah. Collaborative iteration/editing.

Hell, even if it isn't and I'm wrong - the team still should've had a say. They must've seen the drafts, the scripts, they must've heard the actors, edited the recordings. To build the Act 2 end scene, it took more than one guy - so why didn't the rest tell him it was bad? Probably because they all thought it was a good idea.

I've DEFINITELY gotten a feeling that there were a lot of people with conflicting ideas having either an equal say or having THE say in some areas and not in others. Kind of a "too many chiefs, no enough Indians" sort of thing. It's weird saying it like that because I know for a fact that Deus Ex and Fallout at the very least are probably as good as they are because a lot of people with different ideas contributed them. I wonder what the difference is.

 

[Haba]

Oh man, the NPCs not written by MCA really were a god damn joke. The Granny Dwarf, Birdhead Paladin, Midget Druid... Let's just say that their personal quests were not very deep.

I have to agree with earlier sentiments, Obs seems to have fucked themselves with the game, story-wise.

Spoiler

The revelations about Gods origins kinda take the point from any more radical exploration there

. There isn't much to build on for further adventures.

 

[Kiste]

Oh man, the NPCs not written by MCA really were a god damn joke. The Granny Dwarf, Birdhead Paladin, Midget Druid... Let's just say that their personal quests were not very deep.

None of them were "deep". I have to say, though, that I liked to Dwarfess quite a bit.

I have to agree with earlier sentiments, Obs seems to have fucked themselves with the game, story-wise.

Spoiler

The revelations about Gods origins kinda take the point from any more radical exploration there

. There isn't much to build on for further adventures.

I disagree.

Spoiler

The fact that the gods were created by the Engwithans doesn't change the fact that they exist and they have power. Plenty of opportunities right here. The revelation about the true nature of the gods could be quite cataclysmic. I see plenty of good story potential.

 

[Angthoron]

I've DEFINITELY gotten a feeling that there were a lot of people with conflicting ideas having either an equal say or having THE say in some areas and not in others. Kind of a "too many chiefs, no enough Indians" sort of thing. It's weird saying it like that because I know for a fact that Deus Ex and Fallout at the very least are probably as good as they are because a lot of people with different ideas contributed them. I wonder what the difference is.

I'm guessing the difference may be in the editorial process. It's possible that after DE and FO were finished, the editor was told to go over the final result one more time and make sure everything is consistent. It's also possible that editing of PoE writing was another round of iterations. I don't know, I just don't feel like they did the final edit round. In any case, I'd say that the difference has to be in the editing stage in some way or another.

I just stealthed into that room and stole the book, no probs with animancer, but also nothing special.

I used the mask and made a deal with guys in woedica temple but now that everything is finished they just stand there and i cant tell them what i did with two quests they gave me, whats up with that?

Just unleash murderchaos upon them.

yeah, got anything else that isnt stupid?

its not like i havent been doing that for most of the game, either.

I'm seriously. There's one ending slide that made me wonder if a better outcome for the city would've been to outright slaughter the Leaden Key.

There isn't much to build on for further adventures.

Nah, following their own set up theme, the addon/2 would be about wickedness of men rather than will of the gods. There's plenty to build on in that department. However, they did blow their load too soon with the gods.

 

[Shadenuat]

I hope they will change the setting for something more unified and with style. Like when NWN2 sucked, but then you get thrown into a land where Minsc is from, a land of witches and talking bears.
I especially liked talking bears.
Maybe intrigues in Vallian republics, or a sea adventure. I was hoping since colonization and stuff, travel would take bigger part in the narrative...

 

[hiver]

I'm seriously. There's one ending slide that made me wonder if a better outcome for the city would've been to outright slaughter the Leaden Key.

meh.

beside the point. there should have been some conclusion to that sub quest line written. it isnt more then a few more dialogue lines and to see its not there is just bleh.

 

[Kiste]

I hope they will change the setting for something more unified and with style. Like when NWN2 sucked, but then you get thrown into a land where Minsc is from, a land of witches and talking bears.
I especially liked talking bears.
Maybe intrigues in Vallian republics, or a sea adventure. I was hoping since colonization and stuff, travel would take bigger part in the narrative...

As long as it's not Renaissance style like in DA: Inquisition. Fucking hate that shit.

 

[Angthoron]

I'm seriously. There's one ending slide that made me wonder if a better outcome for the city would've been to outright slaughter the Leaden Key.

meh.

beside the point. there should have been some conclusion to that sub quest line written. it isnt more then a few more dialogue lines and to see its not there is just bleh.

Yeah, this is true. You should at least be able to come over and tell them how you sabotaged their crap or lie to them about being successful or things of that nature, some type of natural closure, considering they were your quest givers. In fact, it'd have made more sense if you'd find out from them that you should be visiting Lady Webb rather than some Cipher randomly finding you at a random location.

 

[Owlish]

I've DEFINITELY gotten a feeling that there were a lot of people with conflicting ideas having either an equal say or having THE say in some areas and not in others. Kind of a "too many chiefs, no enough Indians" sort of thing. It's weird saying it like that because I know for a fact that Deus Ex and Fallout at the very least are probably as good as they are because a lot of people with different ideas contributed them. I wonder what the difference is.

Well Fallout was or was nearly 100% nerdy white guys that all enjoyed the same media such as A Boy and his Dog, and Mad Max 2.

 

[dragonul09]

I hope they will change the setting for something more unified and with style. Like when NWN2 sucked, but then you get thrown into a land where Minsc is from, a land of witches and talking bears.
I especially liked talking bears.
Maybe intrigues in Vallian republics, or a sea adventure. I was hoping since colonization and stuff, travel would take bigger part in the narrative...

As long as it's not Renaissance style like in DA: Inquisition. Fucking hate that shit.

You do know that PoE corresponds to the early stages of the Reinnaisance.

 

[Roguey]

The way I've read it on their updates, Cain was programming and system, Avellone was part-time feedback, Sawyer was world design and system While they delegated narrative and story elements to Fenstermaker and he just didnt have the chops to make it well rounded enough to be both unique and freeform.

Fallout, BG2, Arcanum etc. all had significant stories with the player reserving the right to upset and or NOT comply with any of the assumptions of said story.

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/64172-update-60-camaraderie/

So a narrative update related to companions... Eric Fenstermaker (designer, Fallout: New Vegas, also responsible for Boone and Veronica and worked on NWN2: Mask of the Betrayer and... and... oh, just Google him) has been hard at work on the narrative, and it’s reached the point with the arc and themes that now seemed like a good time to introduce the companion supporting pillars to the process to take the story higher (...not necessarily in a “Can you Take Me Higher” Creed sort of way, since it’s not really a question, it’s more like, “yes, we will take you higher.”)

Over the past few months, I’ve been scrutinizing the systems and story documents for Eternity (and Torment), the themes, and also checking out the other companion briefs from the other designers. Aside from the companion designs I wrote, feedback has been wildly traded in the interests of making companions even better than their core concepts. It was my goal to read EVERYTHING about the narrative I could, even brainstorming - and in Torment’s case, novellas as well. Now it was time to work on the structure of the individual companions.
...
Both the Eternity and Torment leads have been strong advocates about letting designers channel their characters. If you are excited about an idea, they are willing to work with you to help realize that idea and help it fit into the world, without giving barriers to entry. In my opinion, the best GMs do this – rather than give you character sheets, they help you make a character you care about. In essence, companion design is a designer’s chance to design their very own player character that fits in with the world and the theme.

On Eternity, Eric has a strong theme for the story already. While not the original theme, Josh was accommodating and we all recognized that if another theme came to the forefront naturally through the writing process, it’s fine to alter it to make a stronger design. Having this theme clearly identified and supported in the narrative is good, but we’re taking care to make sure the companions can provide direct examples of the theme at work (or present counters or alternate viewpoints to it) - and the more, the better.
...
There’s still plenty of work to do – like all design, iteration is key, and we have been doing passes of the characters to make them stronger. While the companions exist as individual entities, we also feel it’s important to do a pass of the companions to show how they relate to each other, which we feel is an important part of making the game Infinity Engine-esque, and it was a big part of the dynamics in Baldur’s Gate and Torment – describing how companions relate, fight, argue, or even act as sounding boards for both your character and each other’s viewpoints is an important part of creating a living world – and your party is very much the living world that follows you around.

The work doesn’t stop there. A pass of the companions asking “why the players should care” is also something we like to make sure we have an answer to for each companion. While the answer of “good fighter” is an answer (and one that’s worked well for a number of companions in the past), we prefer to add more layers showcasing how they’re specifically adding to the player experience.

 

[Kel]

The way I've read it on their updates, Cain was programming and system, Avellone was part-time feedback, Sawyer was world design and system While they delegated narrative and story elements to Fenstermaker and he just didnt have the chops to make it well rounded enough to be both unique and freeform.

Fallout, BG2, Arcanum etc. all had significant stories with the player reserving the right to upset and or NOT comply with any of the assumptions of said story.

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/64172-update-60-camaraderie/

So a narrative update related to companions... Eric Fenstermaker (designer, Fallout: New Vegas, also responsible for Boone and Veronica and worked on NWN2: Mask of the Betrayer and... and... oh, just Google him) has been hard at work on the narrative, and it’s reached the point with the arc and themes that now seemed like a good time to introduce the companion supporting pillars to the process to take the story higher (...not necessarily in a “Can you Take Me Higher” Creed sort of way, since it’s not really a question, it’s more like, “yes, we will take you higher.”)

Over the past few months, I’ve been scrutinizing the systems and story documents for Eternity (and Torment), the themes, and also checking out the other companion briefs from the other designers. Aside from the companion designs I wrote, feedback has been wildly traded in the interests of making companions even better than their core concepts. It was my goal to read EVERYTHING about the narrative I could, even brainstorming - and in Torment’s case, novellas as well. Now it was time to work on the structure of the individual companions.
...
Both the Eternity and Torment leads have been strong advocates about letting designers channel their characters. If you are excited about an idea, they are willing to work with you to help realize that idea and help it fit into the world, without giving barriers to entry. In my opinion, the best GMs do this – rather than give you character sheets, they help you make a character you care about. In essence, companion design is a designer’s chance to design their very own player character that fits in with the world and the theme.

On Eternity, Eric has a strong theme for the story already. While not the original theme, Josh was accommodating and we all recognized that if another theme came to the forefront naturally through the writing process, it’s fine to alter it to make a stronger design. Having this theme clearly identified and supported in the narrative is good, but we’re taking care to make sure the companions can provide direct examples of the theme at work (or present counters or alternate viewpoints to it) - and the more, the better.
...
There’s still plenty of work to do – like all design, iteration is key, and we have been doing passes of the characters to make them stronger. While the companions exist as individual entities, we also feel it’s important to do a pass of the companions to show how they relate to each other, which we feel is an important part of making the game Infinity Engine-esque, and it was a big part of the dynamics in Baldur’s Gate and Torment – describing how companions relate, fight, argue, or even act as sounding boards for both your character and each other’s viewpoints is an important part of creating a living world – and your party is very much the living world that follows you around.

The work doesn’t stop there. A pass of the companions asking “why the players should care” is also something we like to make sure we have an answer to for each companion. While the answer of “good fighter” is an answer (and one that’s worked well for a number of companions in the past), we prefer to add more layers showcasing how they’re specifically adding to the player experience.

All this just proves my point that Fenstermaker was the weak link as the unified story sucks, whereas individual elements that the other seniors designed are quite appealing. If he were in charge of setting theme and pace, then accountability lies with him. Avellone delegated responsibility because he wanted to play company chief and work light that's cool, but the game suffered because of it. If you have Michael Jordan on the bench just because you want to foster collaboration between 90s Bulls roster, that is a tragic mistake.

 

[Owlish]

All this just proves my point that Fenstermaker was the weak link as the unified story sucks, whereas individual elements that the other seniors designed are quite appealing. If he were in charge of setting theme and pace, then accountability lies with him. Avellone delegated responsibility because he wanted to play company chief and work light that's cool, but the game suffered because of it. If you have Michael Jordan on the bench just because you want to foster collaboration between 90s Bulls roster, that is a tragic mistake.

Ron Harper on the bench of the Chicago Sky is more apt

 

[Kel]

All this just proves my point that Fenstermaker was the weak link as the unified story sucks, whereas individual elements that the other seniors designed are quite appealing. If he were in charge of setting theme and pace, then accountability lies with him. Avellone delegated responsibility because he wanted to play company chief and work light that's cool, but the game suffered because of it. If you have Michael Jordan on the bench just because you want to foster collaboration between 90s Bulls roster, that is a tragic mistake.

Ron Harper on the bench of the Chicago Sky is more apt

I know I'm being perpetually hard on Fenstermaker but what they're trying to accomplish isn't just a "good" game. They're trying to make a GREAT game with the same virtues of the Big Three.

Well buddy, the Big Three have 3 things that you screwed up:

a) player choice / causality
b) act structure that evens out player enthusiasm throughout the experience
c) companions that affect your experience of the game (instead of a couple of quips here and there, and "walk here speak with soul then advance to next walkabout" drudgery.

Either force Fenstermaker to play Fallout 2 for 100 hours as his punishment, or let him go to some mediocre company like Bioware.

 

[Jaedar]

Speaking of the gods. What are their powers... exactly?

They don't seem that impressive in the game or lore.

 

[dragonul09]

Speaking of the gods. What are their powers... exactly?

They don't seem that impressive in the game or lore.

Because they didn't explained jack shit,everything was so vague when it comes to the gods powers or gods in general.

 

[Owlish]

Speaking of the gods. What are their powers... exactly?

They don't seem that impressive in the game or lore.

The gods playing chess with the lives of mortals cliche with little direct influence in the world other than granting some power to their followers and interfering with their souls.

The writing at the spot where you pray to the various gods for assistance is well done. Whoever did that did a good job.